Harrison Ford may appear in new Blade Runner

It’s been almost a year since we learned about the new Blade Runner film, which will be produced and directed by the creator of the original: the one and only Ridley Scott.

There were two major points to cover at the time. First, when Alcon obtained the rights to make a new film, it was with the caveat that, if the studio made the movie, it could not be a remake, retelling, or readaptation of the original.

Rather, the script must take place after, before, or in a different place relative to Blade Runner - and could not be about Detective Deckard chasing robots. Essentially, this means Alcon has the rights to make a Blade Runner story, but not Blade Runner itself.

Since then, we learned that Scott’s initial, tentative plan was to make a sequel, without Harrison Ford. Indeed, Scott stated for the record that no members of the previous cast were planned to return.

Then again, perhaps a few more months of development has shown one side or the other that discounting Ford’s involvement was a mistake. Yes, movie news site Twitch reported this weekend that Ford is in talks to possibly appear in the long-awaited film.

Unfortunately, we have no idea what character he might play or in what context, especially since we don’t yet even have any semblance of a plot for the film. If the new film takes place years after the Ridley Scott classic, then perhaps he’ll return as Deckard, but this seems doubtful. It’s also doubtful that the talks are just to get him in a cameo shot, as that usually doesn’t require ‘talks’.

Most likely, I think he’ll briefly play the role of a robot either intended to be an aging version of the model Deckard was supposed to be, or one based on the same visual design. Or perhaps, he’ll play the role of the man who, as young engineer, the Deckard robot was based on visually, and who has now aged.

Not to put too strong a point on Ford’s age, but he cannot play a young man anymore, even with lots of make-up, so they’d have to digitize him, like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in that flash-back scene in X-Men 3, and there wouldn’t be too much point in doing that for an entire film.

Scott’s current project, Prometheus, is in post-production and will hit theaters early this summer. Production on this new film will likely pick up soon after.